AMA to Offer Seal of Approval to Doctors Who Meet Standards

WASHINGTON —  The American Medical Assn. said Tuesday that it would create a seal of approval for doctors who meet certain quality standards.

AMA officials said the voluntary plan can ease consumer worries that doctors are forced to cut corners because of cost pressures. But skeptics questioned how the professional group could publicly judge its own members.

“Quality should be the driver in the new American health system,” said Dr. George D. Lundberg, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

But this week’s issue of the journal highlights just how difficult it is to measure quality, with studies that say care for elderly and chronically ill patients in particular is hard to assess. And the AMA accreditation plan will offer consumers little specific information.

Instead, the detailed information the AMA collects on doctors will be sold to interested health plans, which use such data to evaluate physicians.

Just 40% of the nation’s doctors belong to the AMA, but the accreditation process will be open to any doctor, for a fee.

The move comes just two months after the AMA fired three top executives and backed out of a multimillion-dollar deal for the AMA to endorse a line of Sunbeam Corp. home health products.

Under the new AMA plan, doctors could earn accreditation by proving that they have proper credentials, meet ethical standards and properly run their offices.

The AMA advertises that the process will also measure clinical performance, patient care and satisfaction. But those standards won’t be in place for a few years, and the AMA has no plans to withhold accreditation from doctors based on poor performance or results. Rather, they’ll demand improvement from the physician.

Nor will the public ever get to see the background on doctors that the AMA collects. It will only tell patients whether a certain doctor is accredited, not whether a doctor tried and failed to get the seal or where someone fell short.

Tougher standards would discourage doctors from taking part, said Dr. William F. Jessee, the AMA’s vice president for quality and managed care.